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Role of Women Judges Associations: A Perspective from Uganda
November, 2007
By: Henrietta Wolayo
Secretary, NAWJ(U) and Registrar of the Supreme Court of Uganda
All over the world, female judicial officers have risen to the occasion and mobilized colleagues to form national associations of women judges, affiliated with the global body, the IAWJ. The National Association of Women Judges - Uganda (NAWJ(U)) is one such organization with a membership of women judges, registrars, magistrates, and honorary male members. When the association was first launched in 1995, the judiciary wished to know why the women should form an association when the Uganda Judicial Officers Association was all-inclusive. The justification for a women's association lies in the need to maintain the right to equality and equal treatment high on the political agenda. One sure way of doing this is the formation of an association of women professionals. Enshrining the right to equality in national constitutions did not automatically translate into equal treatment of women in the homes, community, workplace, and the judicial process. Neither did it translate into automatic repeal of customs, legislation, and laws that are discriminatory or have discriminatory consequences for women.
Since its formation, the NAWJ(U) has made its contribution to national development through training judicial officers in the application of international human rights instruments and crafting appropriate remedies in domestic courts. The NAWJ(U) through the IAWJ's Jurisprudence of Equality Program trained over 200 judicial officers and this has resulted in improved quality of justice cases involving such issues as sexual offence, divorce, and equitable division of matrimonial property. Through the NAWJ(U), women judges traversed the country teaching women about the available remedies in domestic violence cases through drama and distribution of a book on domestic violence that has been translated into local languages. The NAWJ(U) publishes the Women's Judicial Times, a journal that contains educational articles targeting judicial officers and legal researchers. In addition, on the international scene, the NAWJ(U) hosted the first Africa regional conference in August 1996 on domestic violence, marriage and property rights, and in May 2004, hosted the 7th Biennial Conference of the IAWJ, at the Imperial Resort Beach, Entebbe. Justice L.M. Kikonyogo, President of the IAWJ (2002 -2004), chaired the conference committee for this first IAWJ conference held in Africa. The theme of the conference was "Access to Justice" and the conference was honored with a keynote address from Ambassador Gertrude I. Mongella M.P., the first women President of the Pan African Parliament.
Current NAWJ(U) efforts in collaboration with the IAWJ are aimed at developing a curriculum for a new program, Jurisprudence of Equality in a Time of HIV/AIDS. Women in Africa are already disadvantaged by historical factors in the area of education, access to health facilities, and access to justice. Under the scourge of HIV/AIDS their situation can only get worse. It's against this background that the NAWJ(U), in partnership with IAWJ, is developing a training curriculum to sensitize judicial officers to the links between gender and HIV/AIDS so that they
can better appreciate the legal needs of people affected by the pandemic. As national associations continue to embrace their role in national development, members should constantly update themselves on the latest decisions on gender equality and actively participate in seminars and workshops organized by other key actors engaged in the same cause.
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